Rotherham Titans sign another Newcastle Falcons player

The growing co-operation between Rotherham Titans and Premiership club Newcastle Falcons has developed further with the signing of Kiwi back row forward Danny Temm.

The 23 year old, who has played league rugby in Yorkshire for Old Crossleyans in Halifax and Otley before being signed by Newcastle, joins Rotherham as a dual registered player. Powerful and aggressive, Temm may be included in the squad for the Boxing Day Championship match against Moseley.

Last season the New Zealander was sent by Newcastle to Tynedale where Temm and was voted the club’s forward of the year.

As coach Lee Blackett decides his squad for the Moseley game, Rotherham’s hopes of beating the Birmingham club, second from bottom in the Championship, have been boosted by the return from injury of skipper and second row Tom Holmes and, hopefully, hooker Tom Cruse who faces a fitness test (ankle.) Prop Toby Williams also needs to pass a fitness test on a foot as does centre Jordan Davies (back.)

Rotherham, fourth in the Championship with five wins in eight games, face a hectic league schedule with consecutive matches against Moseley, Doncaster, Nottingham and Bedford. While Moseley, managed by the former Rotherham player-coach Kevin Maggs, have won only two league matches, they are a much tougher side than results suggest.

One player the Titans must watch is fly half Sam Olver, the Championship’s Player of the Month in November.

Olver, a dual registered player with Northampton Saints, scored 23 points out of the 28 Moseley scored at Castle Park last month when they beat Doncaster. Going into Boxing Day’s contest, Rotherham can look back on a successful league record against Moseley: of the 31 matches played, Rotherham have won more than 20.

However, Blackett has been stressing that there is no room for complacency and having lost at home to Yorkshire Carnegie in the British and Irish Cup before Christmas, the coach is keen that his squad must take advantage of the atmosphere created by a partisan crowd.